Even though the market for initial public offerings has been light in 2016, we’ve still seen some noteworthy deals. For instance, Acacia Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ:ACIA) and AVX Corporation (NYSE:AVX) — two of the market’s best IPOs this year — have nearly tripled, at 190% and 180%, respectively. Past that, eight offerings have doubled, and 13 returned between 50% and 100%.
Source: Flickr

But why was 2016’s IPO volume so meager?

Well, the grueling correction during the first year stayed many a hand. Volatile, negative markets are not the right place for a budding publicly traded company. Moreover, the wild presidential race stirred up its own batch of uncertainty. Read

Unless you’ve completely cut the cord, there’s a good chance you’ve seen quite a few commercials with the “Trivago Guy” — a disheveled everyman with gray hair and a wry sense of humor. For the most part, that marketing strategy has worked. And here we are today, with investors on the cusp of buying a piece of Trivago’s upcoming initial public offering.
Source: Luke Murace Via Unsplash

The origins of the company, though, may be a surprise to many. Trivago got its start in Germany back in 2004 as a hotel search engine.

But about eight years later, Expedia Inc (NASDAQ:EXPE) bought a 62% stake in the company for $531 million. Not too shabby for EXPE. Read

Snapchat parent Snap Inc has filed the necessary documents to start the process of an initial public offering, according to a Reuters report. The lead underwriters on a Snapchat IPO will be Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE:GS), the report says, and the offering should hit markets in March.
Source: Maurizio Pesce Via Flickr

So, what do Snapchat’s financials look like?

Good question — and one that we won’t know for a bit longer. The filing was confidential. But we know one thing for certain: Snapchat can’t be generating more than $1 billion in revenues, otherwise the company would not be able to use a confidential filing. Read

Since coming public in late June, Twilio Inc (NYSE:TWLO) has offered juicy returns for both the longs and shorts. Keep in mind that the first-day return was a sizzling 92%. Then a few months later, the gains for TWLO stock came to 366%, making the Twilio IPO one of the top performers for the year.

But after this, the shorts wasted little time capitalizing. Consider that TWLO stock has gone on to shed a grueling 54% from the peak.

For IPOs, this kind of action is not necessarily a rarity, especially for companies that have caught the attention of momentum traders. Read

Snap Inc., which was previously called Snapchat, reportedly wants to raise $4 billion in its initial public offering (IPO) for 2017.

The Snap IPO is expected to take place during the first quarter of 2017. The IPO for the company is expected to value it between $25 billion and $35 billion. However, it is possible that it could reach a value of up to $40 billion.

Unnamed sources close to the matter claim that the company will be confidentially filing its IPO documents with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This is possible because the company has yearly revenue below $1 billion. It is planning to bring in $350 million in advertising revenue in 2016. Read

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that the fast-growing mobile chat app’s parent, Snap, is putting together the necessary paperwork for an initial public offering. Shares could hit the markets by late March 2017, and the Snapchat IPO could be valued at more than $25 billion — the valuation of Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) at its offering.

So why won’t Snapchat go public any sooner than March? After all, a Snapchat IPO is almost certain to be a huge success. Snapchat is one of the leaders of the mobile revolution, and the company has already beaten its revenue projections for this year (which were $350 million on the high end). Next year, Snapchat expects to reach $1 billion in revs. Read

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.